Note : 足元が悪い ( = ashimoto ga warui) 足元 ( = ashimoto) means under foot which means ground. When it rains, the ground gets wet and muddy and makes it hard to walk.
So this expression shows appreciation towards a person who has come a long way in bad weather.

= I would really appreciate all the help and support everyone has provided so far. (I owe you a lot.)

＜御礼＞ ( = orei) Thank you

•御礼を言う ( = orei wo iu) to say thank you

Ex. お世話になった人に御礼を言いたい。

= Osewani natta hito ni orei wo iitai.

= I would like to express my appreciation to a person who has taken care of me.

•御礼を申し上げる ( = Orei wo moushiageru) to say thank you. (polite)

Ex. 皆様の御協力に心から御礼申し上げます。(formal)

= Minasama no gokyouryoku ni kokoro kara orei moushiagemasu.

= We are sincerely grateful for all your cooperation.

Ex. 重ねて御礼申し上げます。(formal)

= Kasanete orei moushiagemasu.

= We would like to say thank you again.

Ex. 厚く御礼申し上げます。(formal)

= Atsuku moushiagemasu.

= We are extremely grateful.

Cultural note: Thank you giftis also called御礼 ( = orei)

In some occasions we give a present to a person who did a favor for us to show our appreciation.
In casual situation we don’t put any label but if it is formal, we put a label which says 御礼 ( = orei)
If you give some money, put the money in a white envelope and write 御礼 ( = orei) .
We sometimes put thanks money, including some lesson fee in an envelope marked as 御礼 ( = orei).

<How to receive gifts or favor>

In many cases you can just say thank you and receive a gift but there is a certain case that you should be more polite. Here’s how.

If someone offers you a gift, you can reject it once lightly as a formality,

Ex.いえいえ、そんなことをして頂いたら（困ります。）

= Ieie, sonna koto wo shite itadaitara komarimasu.

= Oh no..I would be in trouble if you do such a thing.→You don’t need to do that.

Ex.その様なご心配はもうなさらないで下さい。

( = Sonoyou na goshinnpai wa mou nasaranai de kudasai.)

Please don’t worry about that.

Ex.もうそんなことは(なさらないで下さい。）

= Mou sonnna koto wa (nasaranai de kudasai.)

= Please don’t do such a thing.

Ex. もうそんなご心配は（なさらないで下さい。）

= Mou sonnna goshinpai wa (nasaranai de kudasai.

= Please don’t worry about that.

Ex.その様なことをして頂いたら却って申し訳ないです。

= Sonoyou na koto wo shite itadaitara kaette moushiwake nai desu.

= I would feel terrible if you did that.

OK, enough! Now you take it!! But be polite! :D

Ex.そうですか？それではお言葉に甘えて…

= Soudesu ka? Soredewa okotoba ni amaete..

= If you insist, well, then I will allow myself to accept…

Ex. それでは遠慮なく頂戴致します。申し訳ありません。

= Sorede wa enryo naku choudai itashimasu. Mushiwake arimasen.

= OK, in that case, I will take it without any hesitation. Thank you so much.

Ex. いつも頂くばかりですみません。

= Itsumo itadaku bakari de sumimasen.

= I feel bad because I always receive things from you.

Note : If you really are the one who’s always taking, go checkお返し(=okaeshi) culture in my Valentine’s lesson!

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54 Comments

Hi Maggie Sensei! I heard someone use ありがたいね as thank you, and the internet said that it’s an old fashioned and informal way to say thank you. Is this true? What’s the difference between ありがたい and ありがとう?

I see. The way you use ありがとう and ありがたい are a little different.
When you simply want to say “Thank you!” to someone, you say ありがとう. Not ありがたい.
While you say ありがとう to people who did/does something for you, ありがたい is used to show your appreciation to the situation, circumstances, things or event that help you.

Maggie, hellooooo~! *hugs*
Christmas is just around the corner, so here are my wishes for you! Please be healthy, happy every day, keep supporting us with your knowledge about Japan’s culture and Japanese language and may all your dreams come true!

And here’s also my little request for you.
During playing Final fantasy IX <3 I come across an expression「かたじけない」, which also means「 ありがとう」. Could you tell us something about it? When is it used and who normally uses it?

Also you can add to "How do you response when someone says thank you to you":
1. 礼には及ばない
2. なんのなんの

Maggie-sensei, I’m sorry to trouble you with another question. I first need to write an email to my friend’s aunt who will show me around during my visit to Japan, but I wonder how I should open it? Would including something like 貴重なお時間をありがとうございました and 迷惑をかけてすみません。to convey that I’m sorry to trouble her and to thank her for making the time to see me.

I have a question, there was a Japanese thanking me but I don’t know what she was thanking for. If I want to ask her “why did you thanking me?” in nihongo, does this sentence なぜあなたは私に感謝しましたか？ has the exact meaning?

If you want to say more casual way, just say
Thank you for being my friend. = 友達でいてくれてありがとう！= Tomodachi de ite kurete arigatou!
I am glad you are my friend = (your friend name)が友達でよかった！= ~ ga tomodachi de yokatta.

@Hi
I need to know the situation.
If someone share a link to the songs you like, you can say
いい歌を教えてくれてありがとう。
いい曲を教えてくれてありがとう。
If that person shared some songs that they singed/composed/played on net, you can also say

Hello Maggie!
Thank you for this wonderful lesson! You explain things very clearly, but I have one little question. Since 頂く is a more polite form of もらう, why is ～ていただき有り難う correct and ～てもらって有り難う wrong? Isn’t the degree of politeness the only difference between those two expressions? Is there some kind of explanation for this?

I don’t oftenly post comments but I had to say
どうも有り難うございました for this incredible lesson. You gave many many great examples that are going to be more than usefull . Thank you for taking time to do this excellent lesson .
(^o^)/

I can find the definition for “seihin” but not when attached with “hon”.

b) Is the literal translation of this sentence: “We are really grateful that you bought the authentic product”?

2) ご足労をおかけ致しました。

Sensei, I have seen “kake” used several times since I started learning Japanese.

a) Does this word, when used with the “i-stem” hold the meaning of “getting into”, “being subject to” X action/verb?

b) Is there a specific kanji version for this word when used in this manner? Or is it intended to be used with Hiragana?

3) そうですか？それではお言葉に甘えて…

“Kotoba ni amaete…”

Is the literal meaning of this phrase something like “I will indulge in your words, I will take advantage of your words” and accept your present then.

4) 何と御礼を申し上げたらいいやら。

I don’t know how to thank you.

a) Can the literal meaning of this sentence be something like: “I don’t know how it would be ok for me to say thank you to you.”?

b) “yara” is another way of saying “darou”, right sensei?

5) “When someone does something for you or give you something, you receive it saying,

Ex. 恐れいります”

Sensei, I think I get the words “fear/anxiety/uneasiness” and “enter”. Does it mean “I enter fear/uneasiness as I receive your favor/gift.”, as in “I am uneasy to receive this from you”?

Sensei may have realized by now that I tend to ask a lot for the literal meaning of things in Japanese. I feel like knowing the literal meaning of the pieces which then conform the expressions allow me to have a better understanding of things and hopefull end up allowing me to play with the words in the future. I am sorry if sensei feels thess questions are somewhat annoying.

2) This かけ is from a verb かける. The kanji is 掛ける
掛ける is one of the verbs which has a lot of meaning. This case it means “to cause something negative”
迷惑をかける= meiwaku wo kakeru = to trouble someone
苦労をかける= to cause someone hardship
So to cause (かける）”ご足労 = to trouble of going/coming all the way”

4) a)+b)
何と御礼を申し上げたらいいやら
this やら is the same as のか or as you said だろう and it is unfinished sentence.
何と御礼を申し上げたらいいのかわかりません。/いいのだろう….= 何と御礼を申し上げたらいいやら…
And your translation is correct.
“I don’t know how I can express my gratitude. ”

5) You are right. 恐れる means “to be scared” “To be afraid of” but the original kanji is 畏れる(=osoreru) it means “to awe”
So 恐れいる means “to be in awe” いる is to be into that condition deeply.
It is just one dramatic expression.

******
To figure out the meaning by the literal meaning does help understand the words or phrases.
And all your questions are good. Not annoying at all.

1) Oh sensei, I get it. It is as in honjitsu = today. I think I got confused because I learned the meaning of “本” with the keyword of “source”, so I felt like the Japanese sentence was a disclaimer of gratitude for buying the “source product” from which people may be making fake copies. XD So wrong. XD

I recall reading sensei’s “honmono” lesson so sensei has just reinforced that lesson for me. Thank you sensei.

2) kake:

Sensei, I recall hearing “hanashikakeru”, if I am not mistaken. Does this expression also have a negative connotation to it? Maybe it is has the nuance of “interrupting” what someone is doing by going to talk to them, right?

4) Oh I think I get it. yara = noka. It is a subordinate clause, like sensei teach me before, right? A question about this sensei, is “yara” by any chance a “casual form of “noka” then?

5) Oh, I do am familiar of “iru” sensei. I just took a bet it was the “iru” for “enter”. “Iru” for “need” was a runner up, I have to admit. lol The amount of homophone words in Japanese is really challenging, and when they lack the kanji in their written form they sometimes become a guessing game for me. :/

Sensei, I have been thinking that once I finish asking all the doubts I have from sensei’s lessons, sensei could put a disclaimer above her lessons that could read something along the lines of: “In the comment section there will be questions from a student called “NecroMadMat”, chances are your doubts are already covered with his questions because he tends to ask questions about every little detail, including the most obvious questions. Feel free to check his comment before posting.” lol

2) 話しかける : Ah, Now I see your original question. This かける is different from かける in “ご足労をかける”／”迷惑をかける” and it doesn’t not “causing troubles”
As I told you, there are many meanings of かける.
When some action is done towards someone (or something), you use かける
問いかける，笑いかける、訴えかける, etc.

4) Yes. (And I’m sorry. I added a line in my previous comment but as you said it is also equivalent to “だろう”)
Also やら shows one’s feeling of suspicion.
どうなることやら… = I wonder what is going to happen.
いつになることやら…= I wonder when it would happen…

All of your questions are going to be very useful for many people. And you will become very famous here. People will say “Thank you! NecroMadMat!”

Thank you for this informative explanation of ways to express thanks and appreciation.

I’m an advanced-level student of Japanese. I speak six other languages fluently, I’ve studied comparative linguistics and right now I’m living in Japan, using Japanese daily (speaking, reading, writing).

What I still find VERY confusing, and, with all due respect, your explanation fails to explain (in fact, it glosses right over it) is the fact that most Japanese people do NOT say or write the particle “を” before the phrases “どうもありがとうございます” or “どうもありがとうございました.”

So my question is, and I’ve looked EVERYWHERE for an answer (even a native Japanese speaker/teacher here was unable to answer; alas, she was also not a trained linguist), is:

When should or must one use を immediately preceding either of these phrases and when is it permissible to NOT use this direct object-marking particle?

Thank you for visiting this site!
Oh, so you’ve been watching Taiga Drama? 有り難き幸せに存じまする！ is a very typical line to show your appreciation in Samurai dramas.
The language is very different from modern Japanese, huh?
They also say かたじけない！（A humble way to say thank you in old days.)

I still need english subtitles to understand everything in dramas, but I can see the language in Taiga is different and I’m especially enjoying the use honorific and humble verbs. It’s very interesting and getting better with more vocabulary learned each episode.

Very nice!! I found this page today, very informative and in easy way . I learned a lot by reading this page, and I haven’t finished yet. I never thought of the actual meaning of arigatou , I never even know there is a kanji for it. thanks!